Nothing holding us back.

I'm posting this with the blogger app for android from my phone. I figure since it's the only internet we'll have for a while once we get there I might as well get used to it. I can tether the phone to my laptop but unless I'm posting videos or a lot of pics this should suffice.
The main reason for this post is just to put some updates on here in case anyone is actually reading it. My last post was talking about my mother being in the hospital. They sent her home two days later and on May 22nd she lost the physical battle. In my mind it was the perfect way for it to happen with her husband and children around her as she took her last breath in her own bed. I will miss being able to talk to her but she will always give me the advice I need by simply remembering how she raised me and applying that to the situation.

With that said, she was one of the major things keeping us here, and now its time to get serious about getting to Oklahoma. We made the decision today to look at buying an inexpensive house within 15-20 miles of our property. That will allow us to get there sooner and be close enough we can work on things regularly and eventually have a home we can rent or re-sell. Now when I say inexpensive house I mean a 2-3 bedroom in the 1500 sq foot range that will cost anywhere from 15 to 35 thousand dollars. With 6000 down we could have a 15 year loan with payments in the 150 a month range. Yes that's house payment not rental. My biggest concern would be buying it from 1500 miles away if a deal comes up or do we just wait and head back there with the trailer and start looking after I find work?

I'll try and update a bit more often as things progress. Right now I'm just wasting time sitting in a guard shack bored out of my mind.

Off-Grid Lighting Choices.

One of the main concerns where we're going is we're far enough away from grid power that it forces us to go "off-grid" which we don't see as a negative whatsoever. It does mean though that we have to look at conserving power wherever possible. One of those places of course is lighting. We have a number of choices ahead of us. In the trailer we'll be staying in while we build it already has 12v lighting but that doesn't mean it's as efficient as possible. 

26.9 watt 1156 bulb

The lights use 1156 bulbs that are basically tail lamps for cars. They are rated at 12.8 volts, 2.1 amps, and 26.9 watts each. With 11 light fixtures having 2 bulbs each that's 22 bulbs times 26.9 watts for a total of 591.8 watts for every hour that all the lights are on. 

Granted all 11 lights will never be on at the same time, and each fixture can turn on either one or two bulbs at a time. We try now when we're at my parents place to only use the lights we need when we really need them but we still find ourselves leaving them on at times in areas where we're not. It also doesn't help that Deb can't hardly reach them up on the ceiling to turn them off and on anyway. They are also a standard yellowish color rather than the natural white light you get from the sun. 

So what are our alternatives? LED lights or course. they make LED replacement lights that will plug right in to the socket and use are rated at just over half of the 1156 bulbs. Of course this means you still have a total of about 271 watts for all the bulbs. What else can we use? Well, I found an alternative while perusing the small cabin forums for a single surface mounted LED that was ready for 12 volts and the price point was right at $1.99 each.

The LD1-x series from www.superbrightleds.com are as you can see a very tiny led that is wired and ready to use in a 9v-15 v system and are amazingly bright for their size. They also have a 120 degree light angle so they do a pretty good job at spreading the light out. They are rated at 15mA each which at the same 12.8 volts used above puts them at .19 watts each. That is a savings of 26.7 watts per bulb! Now in fairness they are not close to being as bright as the non LED bulb so in our tests we've decided on using two lights in each side for a total of 4 per fixture. 

So what is our power draw using these led lights? 11 fixtures with 4 lights each equals 8.45 watts for each hour that all the lights are on. These lights could run 24 hours a day and would only use 203 watts of power or roughly one third of the power the original bulbs use in one hour! We figure a usage rate of about half the fixtures for maybe 6 hours a day so we need 25 watts of power for lighting. 

We also bought two of each light color, cool white, natural white, and warm white to test out and see which one we liked. A quick note on superbrightleds.com, we received them within a matter of days from across the country and they had packaged them in three separate anti-static bags, one for each type that we ordered. We were very pleased with the service and will be buying the rest of our led supplies from them as well. 

The cool white LED's seemed very bright but are a very harsh bluish light kind of like the blinding HID lamps you see on the new cars. I personally didn't like them although they were a better choice over the warm white leds that we tried next. They have more of a yellow colring to them like the original 1156 bulbs which is supposed to be better for reading but they just didn't light things up like we wanted. The natural white however was a perfect blend between the two. They seemed very much like normal daylight and we were able to read, use the laptop, and eat under them and it felt, well natural. 

So where does that leave us? We could power the lights in our trailer with a 10 watt solar panel and a battery a small as a 7.2Ah SLA battery and have two days in reserve keeping the battery above a 50% charge. Not bad for a $100.00 investment to replace all 22 bulbs. 

Life's Unplanned Journeys

I find it amazing how life can take the best laid out plans and throw a wrench in them just as you think you're fully on track. We had goals set to be on our way to Oklahoma within the next 8 weeks but we forgot to factor in a major issue, Family.

Our daughter is going with us and of course so are the dogs so that takes care of the immediate family, but what do you do about brothers, sisters, moms and dads? The wife's parents have been supportive of the move even with the apprehensions of moving to tornado town. Of course they'd rather we not leave as their other two kids live within a mile of them, but they also know we are nothing like the other kids. (In other words we're nuts.) My parents were also very supportive until about 5 months ago when my mothers liver disease took a turn for the worse.

I sit here typing this from a hospital room, where my mother is yet again in need of a blood transfusion just to keep her going a few more weeks. The current cycle is after about two weeks she can't walk by herself, within a day or two of that she can't walk at all, then she starts getting incoherent and by the end of the third week it's back to the hospital for another transfusion to get the platelet levels up and the ammonia levels down. After three or four days she's back home and the cycle starts again. I've had to spend more time away from work and here at the house helping with her as much as I can so my sister that lives with them can get a break and doesn't have to handle it all. The other sister next door helps out a bit but is having issues with the fact that her mother is dying and most of the time can't handle it. The only advantage to it is it means I've had some extra time to get the trailers ready for the move since they're stored at my parents house.

Unfortunately it's been a rough cycle for my dad. He always thought with all his Vietnam injuries he'd be the first to go and I don't know if he ever mentally prepared himself for the chance that this might not be the case. He knows now that it will most likely happen that way, but it still doesn't mean he's ready for it and frankly with his current health I don't think he'll be with us much longer after she goes.

Thus begs the question, do we put off our plans and stay here until this issue is complete, or do we set another goal of the end of the summer and go all out for it? At this point I can only talk about it with my wife or dad. My mom has taken to crying every time I mention anything about it because it's so far away (1500 miles) and she know's she'll never be able to travel there because of her health.

At this point I just keep planning as it's all that keeps me sane....

Crocheted Frog Beanie

We've decided to offer some of Debbie's crocheted hats for sale. I'm still deciding on the best way to handle them on here under the Country Life Dreams name, but for now I'll just post them with a paypal button and make links to the posts on the side menu.

Hand Crocheted Frog Beanie.

This hat has ear flaps and long tails on the sides.

Size

Kids $28.00 USD Adult $30.00 USD

To buy this hat locally for cash, contact Deb via email. 

They Told Him He Was Poor

As the story goes, an elderly man lies alone in his nursing home bed; his children all grown and leading what many consider to be successful lives; however, unable to care for their aged father. His is a story similar to countless others. He was born in the 1920’s, an era defined by its self-sufficiency. He was raised on the family farm. The family had all that was needed and they were dependent on no one. One day, during the heart of the industrial revolution, “they” told him he was poor. Poor because he didn't have the newest modern conveniences. Poor because he grew his own food and didn't purchase from the grocery chain. Poor because he didn’t have electricity. So he left the farm and went to work, working in the factory downtown, earning a wage. Now, unable to 

Homemade Laundry Soap

How many times have you wondered how easy would it be to make your own laundry soap and if it would be cheaper than just buying it at the store?

We just made our second batch of liquid laundry soap and we're a lot happier with the results.

It takes about half a cup per load and our clothes are just as clean as with the store bought stuff and while I don't have an exact cost per load, knowing what's in it and having no scent to drive me nuts is worth it.

It takes about an hour to get everything ready and mixed then a day or so to cool and be ready to use. It's not like the normal liquid you see but looks more like egg drop soup. Our first batch we used less of the bar soap and it was a little thinner. This time it seems just about perfect.

The soap has only four ingredients,

Freezerator Update

Have everything now for the system with the exception of the inverter and battery. The freezer went on sale just after I made the last post and I got it for just over $100.00 off the original price of $499.99. Got the solar panel from ebay along with the updated thermostat. The charge controller is a cheaper unit from Harbor Freight but does the job.

The freezer worked great as a freezer and after putting in the new thermostat, it appears to work great as a refrigerator as well. According to my kill-a-watt meter it draws just under 8 amps for a few seconds at startup and then drops to 1.2 amps. It only runs about 5-6 minutes each hour and after running it for

A New Freezerator In Our Future?

One of the main things we will have to deal with in Oklahoma from the day we get there is we will have no electric service. Now I myself don't see that as a negative and at this point neither does the wife. Of course we can't go without power at all which leaves us with solar, wind, and propane. The main topic of this post however is food and refrigeration.

Old Abandoned Root Cellar

Our main source of food storage will be in the form of a root cellar. I figure if storing food underground worked before electricity was around it should still work just fine.

What we plan on doing is digging what can be considered a combination root cellar / storm shelter as our first major project when we get there. It's tornado country so a storm shelter is an absolute must, especially since we'll be living in a tornado magnet travel trailer until the house is built. Of course now that it's also earthquake country it'll need a little more reinforcement than I originally planned, but that's okay.

The layout of our property being on the hill means it'll be easier to dig into the side of the hill for the cellar/shelter so it'll be a bit bigger than the standard root cellar. My goal would be for us to be able to have hammocks up that we could sleep in in the event of a bad stormy night.

Inefficiency On Display

Of course you're probably still wondering what the heck is a freezerator? Before I answer that, let's cover why the need for a freezerator exists.

Basic thermodynamics is that hot air rises and cold air falls. By design then the standard front door refrigerator is inefficient. When you open the door, all the cold air you've spent money on creating has now been instantly turned into a foot chiller. It may be really convenient, but in a time where we all need to conserve a little more and save some of those hard earned slave wages, we could do better.  Have you ever wondered why they can keep food in the store in refrigeration units with no lids? It's because the cold air stays inside and they're actually cheaper to run than those with the glass doors. The real question though is how inefficient are standard upright units?